Let's Feed and Not Poison the Hungry

Charles L. Wilson, Ph.D., Founder, World Food Preservation Center? LLC [email protected]m

According to the United Nations, World Hunger is on the rise for the first time in recent history and my concern is that we are not on a sustainable path to solve this “wicked problem.” I have added concern that some programs to attack world hunger will be exceedingly harmful to individuals in the developing world and their environment.

In the 1960’s and ‘70’s the world faced a similar food shortage crisis and it was effectively met by the “Green Revolution.” Crop yields increased globally 3.5-5.0% per year during the "Green Revolution" by breeding high yielding crops, expanding the land under cultivation, and using more intense cultural practices. Presently, even with our advanced technologies we can barely increase crop yields 1% per year. With an exploding world population, expected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, it has been shown clearly that on our present course world hunger is going to escalate.

Agribusiness sets a large part of the agricultural agenda in mounting initiatives to attack world hunger and they played an important role in the “Green Revolution." Agribusiness makes its profits by selling seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. Therefore, they are mounting a “Second Green Revolution” by promoting the increased sale and use of seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides.

As we go down this path to increase food production, let’s reflect on the human and environmental costs that were imposed by the “First Green Revolution.” Because of increased use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides in the past, water reserves have been depleted and polluted. Also, intolerable pesticide poisonings of man and animals occurred and continues to occur. Since the “Green Revolution” great advances have been made in the development of alternatives to “chemical farming.” Therefore, as we go forward we need to promote these alternatives in our attack on world hunger.

Lessons Learned in our Use of Pesticides to Increase Crop Yields.

A UN report presented to the UN Human Rights Council this year states that, “although pesticide use has been correlated with a rise in food production, it has had "catastrophic impacts" on human health and the environment.

An average of about 200,000 people die from the toxic exposure of pesticides per year across the world, the United Nations says, calling for tougher global regulation of substances meant to control pests or weeds for plant cultivation.

The report continues, "Equally, increased food production has not succeeded in eliminating hunger worldwide. Reliance on hazardous pesticides is a short-term solution that undermines the rights to adequate food and health for present and future generations."

The UN report lists an array of serious illnesses and health issues with suspected links to pesticides, including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, hormone disruption, birth defects, sterility, and neurological effects.

Developing Countries Suffer the Greatest Negative Health and Environmental Impacts from Pesticides

Due to underreporting, the number of deaths from pesticide poisoning worldwide can only be estimated. Ninety-nine percent of fatalities are believed to be in developing countries.

Pesticides banned in the developed world are often exported and sold in developing countries. This coupled with the poor labeling of these pesticides (in unintelligible languages), poor  application training, and poor sanitation leads to a great number of avoidable deaths among pesticide applicators and food consumers.

Tragically, pesticides are the most commonly used substance among farmers in developing countries to commit suicide. In the early 1990s, Sri Lanka had one of the world’s highest suicide rates, at around 52 per 100,000 per year, up from around 8 per 100,000 in 1955. Much of this rise was traced to the introduction of pesticides into poor rural homes from the late 1960s, making them accessible for self-poisoning. Fortunately, programs have been introduced more recently to reduce these deaths.

The developed world is also paying a health price for exporting banned pesticides to developing countries. Exported pesticides are used for growing coffee, fruit, tea and other commodities that are then imported back into the United States and other developed countries on these commodities. Only about 2 percent of imported produce is inspected by the US Food and Drug Administration. 

 Pesticides in Central and South America

Central America uses more pesticides on a per capita basis — one and a half kilograms of pesticides per person per year — than any other region in the world, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Imports of pesticides rose from 20 million kilograms per year in 1992 to nearly 50 million kilograms in 1998, an all-time high. And notably, some of the pesticides used in Central America have been judged dangerous enough to be banned in the United States and Europe. As a result, as many as 5 million agricultural workers in Central America — many of whom are children — are at risk of exposure to pesticides, according to UN figures.

As reported by Reuters, screenings by regulators show much of the food grown and sold in Brazil violates national regulations on pesticides. In 2014, Anvisa (Brazil National Health Surveillance Agency) conducted an analysis of pesticide residue in foods across Brazil. Of 1,665 samples collected, ranging from rice to apples to peppers, 29 percent showed residues that either exceeded allowed levels or contained unapproved pesticides.

In Yaqui River Valley in Mexico, pesticides have caused illnesses in the children born to women working in the fields. In the Argentinian city of Ituzaingo, where the use of agrochemicals on soy crops has increased exponentially over the years, cancer rates are reportedly 41 times the national average. But local activists are fighting back. The group Mothers of Ituzaingo succeeded in getting a local ban on aerial pesticide being sprayed within 2,500 metres of homes.

 Pesticides in Africa

According to the UN, estimated costs of poisonings from pesticides in sub-Saharan Africa now exceeds the total annual overseas development aid given to the region for basic health services (excluding HIV/AIDS). Between 2005 and 2020, the accumulated cost of illness and injury linked to pesticides in small scale farming in sub-Saharan Africa could reach USD $90 billion. Chemical production is growing worldwide and the growth is most rapid in emerging economies.

Because of limited surveys we have only scattered data on the impact of synthetic pesticides on African farmers. In a 2010 the Pesticide Action Network conducted a survey in Tanzania in a high risk pesticide area. In this area 73% of the farmers applied pesticides once a week and 18% applied twice a week. The majority of the farmers (69%) had experienced pesticide poisoning in the previous farming season due to exposure more than three times to a single farmer; and above 58% of farmers had recently been admitted to a hospital for pesticide poisoning more than three times. Many of the farmers surveyed were able to link their poisoning incident to use of specific pesticidal products.

Organophosphate pesticides have been identified as an important cause of poisoning from studies in Ethiopia and other African countries. In one study a fatality rate of 20% resulting from organophosphate poisoning was found in 50 Ethiopian patients suffering from toxicity. In another study in Ethiopia organophosphate poisoning comprised 41.5% of all acutely poisoned patients with a case fatality rate of 2.4%. Many of these organophosphate insecticides used in Africa have been banned in the developed world.

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have been used worldwide, particularly in Africa, for several decades. Although many are banned, several African countries still use OCPs   especially for the prevention and control of malaria. OCPs are characterized by their bio-accumulation in the environment, especially in the food chain, where they find their way into the human body. Organochlorine insecticides are highly stable under different environmental conditions and persistent in nature where they cause chronic adverse effects on wildlife and humans.

Pesticide Poisoning of Animals in Africa

Pesticide Poisoned White-backed vultures in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, South Africa. Photo A. Botha

Poachers lace cabbage leaves with the pesticide called Carbofuran to bait rhinos and kill them in Africa. The method has been used recently in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa because it is quieter and less easily detected than shooting. Carbuforan is a potent pesticide used to control pests on agricultural crops. 

Chiefly manufactured in the United States (US), Carbuforan’s use is banned in developed countries, but in most African countries it is easily available. It has become the most widely abused of the toxic chemicals that are responsible for the deaths of up to 500,000 wild birds and animals each year in South Africa. According to newly published research in Kenya, this may be the tip of the iceberg as most pesticide poisonings go unreported. According to researcher Darcy Ogada with the Peregrine Fund, Carbuforan is known as “lion killer” among the owners of agro-vet shops and their customers near wildlife areas in Kenya. In the rice fields of western Kenya, where it is used to poison birds for bush meat, it is known locally as dawa ya ndege — “a poison for birds." 

The lion population in East Africa has been decimated by poisoning in recent years, Ogada says. In the early 1990s, the entire population of lions in Amboseli National Park was lost, mainly through poisoning, and it has been estimated that lions will soon be extinct in southern Kenya due to spearing and poisoning. “In western Kenya, bird poachers poison water birds using snails as bait,” says Ogada. “The poachers collect Bulinus snails and use a thin stick to force the snail against its shell and then insert Carbofuran granules into the shell cavity.” 

Ogada's research was published in April, 2014 in The Power of Poison: Pesticide poisoning of Africa’s wildlife, in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

https://www.academia.edu/26040045/The_power_of_poison_pesticide_poisoning_of_Africas_wildlife 

Pesticides in Asia

As reported in “Made for Minds” a survey by researchers at Copenhagen University has found nine out of ten Cambodian farmers show symptoms of extreme pesticide poisoning. Experts say safety measures are often ignored or misunderstood.

Agriculture is Cambodia's most important economic sector. Around 80 percent of the population lives in rural areas, and is mainly involved in subsistence farming. In poor countries like Cambodia farmers routinely spray toxic cocktails on their crops to combat insects. For their study, Danish researchers surveyed around 90 vegetable farmers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The Danish researchers found that half of the pesticides the farmers used were considered extremely hazardous, highly hazardous, or moderately hazardous by the World Health Organization. Some had been banned.

Often farmers cannot read the safety instructions on the pesticides they use.

Labels are in foreign languages and many farmers are unaware of how to use them safely. Cambodia doesn’t manufacture pesticides, so most are imported from Thailand, Vietnam, and China. That means that none of the labels are in Khmer, the local language.

?Children are the Greatest Victims

Children suffer the most from world hunger and “chemical agriculture.” According to UNICEF every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger on earth and 75% of these individuals are children. Also, unfortunately it is children that are the greatest victims from our use of synthetic pesticides.

Tragic accidents involving pesticide poisoning of children include an incident in 1999 in Peru, where 24 schoolchildren died following the consumption of the highly toxic pesticide parathion. The poisoning of 39 preschool children occurred in China in 2014 from consumption of food containing residues of the pesticide TETs. The deaths of 11 children in Bangladesh in 2015 occurred after eating fruits contaminated with pesticides.

One of the most tragic pesticide poisoning of children occurred in Bihar India on July 16, 2013. Children between four and twelve years old at the Dharmashati Gandaman primary school complained that their lunch, served as a part of the Midday Meal Scheme, tasted odd.

Thirty minutes after eating the meal the children complained of stomach pain and soon after were taken ill with vomiting and diarrhea. The number of sick children overwhelmed the school and local medical system. According to the official count, 23 children died as a result of the organophosphate insecticide contaminated food and 48 students fell ill.

Nineteen of the children poisoned in Bihar were buried on or near the school grounds in protest.

Can We Attack World Hunger Without Poisonous Pesticides?

Women work on a small farm in Orissa, India. (Photo: 2006 IDEI, Courtesy of Photoshare)

Small farmers around the world are turning to sustainable methods of agriculture after witnessing the devastation caused by pesticide use. These methods range from organic farm co-ops in Mexico and Argentina to a growing farmers' market movement in India. One of the most striking battles against pesticides is being fought by the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. It has set itself the challenge of becoming the first country in the world with a wholly organic agricultural system.

“Bhutan has decided to go for a green economy in light of the tremendous pressure we are exerting on the planet,” Bhutan Agriculture Minister Pema Gyamtsho stated. “If you go for very intensive agriculture it would imply the use of so many chemicals, which is not in keeping with our belief in Buddhism, which calls for us to live in harmony with nature.”

According to the pioneering Indian Environmentalist, Dr. Vandana Shiva, "Pesticides are pushed on the grounds that it's a very modern way to do farming." She makes the contrary argument below that synthetic pesticides are not necessary and that we need an organic future:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gof7vdQI6OM

"FREEDOM FROM POISONING" Should be a "HUMAN RIGHT"

It was pointed out in this year's report by the UN Human Rights Council that in our rush to provide "food security" for developing countries we have neglected the rights of individuals living in these countries to their "Freedom from Poisoning."

In our effort to mount a second "Green Revolution" we must evaluate the impact of increased pesticide and fertilizer use on man and the environment in developing countries.

We use 70% of our ground water for agriculture. In many developing countries this water is being mined for irrigation at a much greater rate than it is being replenished. Therefore, water management becomes an important issue as we mount the next "Green Revolution."

The UN and World Bank have pointed out that 1/3rd of the food that we already produce is lost between the time that it is harvested and consumed. This is enough food to feed 2 billion hungry people. The World Food Preservation Center LLC is leading the "Food Preservation Revolution" to substantially reduce postharvest food losses in developing countries and also develop biologically-based technologies for the postharvest preservation of food.

Realizing that synthetic pesticides are a major threat to man and the environment in developing countries, a concerted effort is being waged globally to develop biopesticides and biocontrol strategies as alternatives to synthetic pesticides for the control of insects, diseases, and weeds. Encouragingly, organic farming and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs are on the rise in developing countries.

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In addressing world hunger we are facing what Ambassador Quinn has described as the “Single greatest challenge in human history.”

Resources are being mobilized globally to meet this enormous challenge. It is incumbent on us to make sure that while accelerating our efforts to reduce world hunger, we feed the hungry and don't poison them!

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